Mignonette Jamin

Muthanoongamaya 1

Etching 50 x 33 cm Numbered 30/30

$650

This is my country - Muthanoongamaya. These are my dreaming places. On the left are the dreaming palces associated with Yoorloolool - Gut's Ache for which the artist is a healer and on the right are the sites associated with the Ngoonborliny - the Whip Snake.

Mignonette was born at Muthanoongamaya - Majalindy Valley on Majalindy Creek a tributary of the Fitzmaurice River near Palumpa in the Northern Territory. She is a respected law woman and as a child and young woman walked all over the country from Bullo River to Kununurra. She lived at Legune Station and went to school at Port Keats. She came to Kununurra when she was about 10 years old.

Mignonette paints her traditional country - the rivers and billabongs, coastal areas, the hills, rocky ridges, roads and other land marks as well as sites significant to women's business which belongs to her dreaming for country at Majalindy and empowers her as a healer. She also paints country around Kununurra and Wyndham associated with her husband's country - Carlton Hill Station area. Mignonette has only recently begun painting seriously. Her paintings have attracted much attention with their powerfull balanced compositions, a vibrant immediacy and an expansive palette despite working strictly with ochre pigments. Intimate stories and memories of country link these images to her extensive knowledge. (Waringarri Aboriginal Arts 2008)